Protective covers for power lines, commonly referred to as “line guards” have been used by linemen working in the vicinity of energized electrical conductors to cover the nearby conductors and associated hardware, such as insulators on which the conductors are mounted, to prevent workers or equipment from accidentally coming into contact with energized conductors. Such contact would clearly be hazardous causing shock and possibly death. These protective covers are typically formed of a dielectric material such as rubber, fiberglass, or plastic. The protective covers are generally used by being placed over the conductors and possibly associated insulators while the workmen are in the vicinity of the conductor.
Some protective covers have been embodied as elongated tubes with spiral passage ways extending from the exterior of the tube to a central space within the tube sized to fit the conductor. For additional details of such protective covers, reference can be made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,145, U.S. Pat. No. 3,835,238, U.S. Pat. No. 2,770,667 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,871,282.
Other protective covers have been embodied in the form of elongate structures that fold around an electrical conductor and snap together to enclose the conductor. For additionally details of such protective covers, reference can be made to U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,357 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,020,560.
A problem with the protective covers that are available for use on high voltage conductors is that they are bulky or heavy. The protective covers made of rubber are quite heavy because of their large size that is dictated by the need for a large air gap. The protective covers made from other materials may not be as heavy as rubber ones, but they also rely upon a large air gap for insulation, and the large air gap makes the protective covers large and bulky. In either case, the protective covers are awkward to work with and place over or remove from the electrical conductors. Additionally, the bulky protective covers pose a storage challenge since they take up so much space when not in use.
Thus, what is needed is a way to isolate energized conductors at high voltages (e.g., 25 kV) without need for a protective cover that is bulky or heavy.